Dr Tyson Wils
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC)
Since 1989, the ABC has been funded by a three-year
appropriation known as the triennial funding system. For the upcoming triennial
period of 2019–20 to 2021–22, the Government has said that there will be $3.16
billion in funding for the ABC.[1]
The Budget also states that the ABC will remain fully exempt from the
efficiency dividend, which is an annual funding reduction for Commonwealth
government agencies introduced in 1987–88.[2] However, the Government
also announced that ‘in order to ensure the ABC continues to find back-office
efficiencies’ it will ‘pause indexation of the ABC’s operational funding’.[3]
According to the Minister for Communications and Arts,
Senator Mitch Fifield:
In 2014 the Government commissioned the Lewis review into the
efficiency of the ABC and SBS. The Government is confident further back office efficiencies
can now be found. A further review of ABC and SBS efficiencies will be
undertaken and will report later this year to assist the ABC in meeting this saving.[4]
The Government anticipates that the pause in indexation of
ABC funding ‘will result in savings to the Budget of $83.7 million over three
years’.[5]
The indexation pause follows ‘efficiency savings’ from the ABC (and Special
Broadcasting Service (SBS)) in the 2014–15 budget of $35.5 and $8.0 million respectively.[6] This was followed in
November 2014 by much larger cuts of $254 million and $25 million respectively,
aimed at ensuring ‘the ABC and SBS eliminate inefficiencies in their back
office operations’. [7]
A specific measure, due to lapse in 2018–19, allocates additional
funding to the levels committed through the triennial process. This measure
provides support to ABC local news and current affairs services, particularly
those services outside capital cities.[8]
In the 2016–17 Budget, the Government allocated $41.4 million over three
years for this measure.[9]
Senator Fifield has stated that ‘the Government has taken no decisions
regarding the future of this initiative’ and that ‘funding remains in place
until 30 June 2019’.[10]
In response to the pause in indexation, ABC Managing
Director Michelle Guthrie stated that the ABC is ‘very disappointed and
concerned that after the measures ... introduced in recent years to deliver
better and more efficient services, the government has now seen fit to deliver
what amounts to a further substantial budget cut’;[11]
and that ‘the impact of the decision [cannot] be absorbed by efficiency
measures alone, as the ABC had already achieved significant productivity gains in
response to past budget cuts’.[12]
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA)’s Media
Director, Katelin McInerney, has said ‘It is becoming increasingly difficult
for the ABC to deliver original investigative journalism and local and regional
newsgathering with ...deep cuts to its funding’;[13] while MEAA’s Equity Director,
Zoe Angus, stated that the ‘cuts also represent a dangerous threat to the
creation of original Australian television production, particularly drama’.[14]
Special Broadcasting Service (SBS)
The Government has announced that it will provide $17.6
million in funding over two years to SBS.[15]
This includes $14.6 million over two years from 2018–19 to
replace revenue from advertising and product placement that SBS could not raise
because legislation to provide the broadcaster with further ‘advertising
flexibility’ has not been passed by the Parliament.[16]
The Communications Legislation Amendment (SBS Advertising Flexibility) Bill
2017 proposed to amend the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991 to
allow SBS to increase its revenue base by:
- permitting
it to ‘air more advertising and sponsorship announcements in prime time viewing
periods’ and
- to
‘earn additional revenue through the use of product placement endorsements in
its commissioned programming’.[17]
The Bill was laid aside by the House of Representatives on
10 August 2017.[18]
The Budget also includes $3.0 million for SBS to ‘support
the development of Australian film and television content’.[19]
[1].
Australian Government, Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2018–19, p. 79.
[2].
N Horne, The
Commonwealth efficiency dividend: an overview, Background note,
Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 13 December 2012.
[3].
Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2018–19, p.
79.
[4].
M Fifield (Minster for Communications and the Arts), Strengthening Australia’s connectivity, creativity and
cultural heritage, media release, 8 May 2018.
[5].
Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2018–19,
p. 79.
[6].
Australian Government, ‘Part
2: expense measures’, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2014–15,
p. 66.
[7].
M Turnbull, National
broadcasters to implement efficiency measures, media release, 19
November 2014.
[8].
Australian Government, Budget
measures: budget paper no. 2: 2013–14, pp. 98–106.
[9].
Australian Government, Budget
measures: Budget paper no. 2: 2016–17, p. 70.
[10].
M Fifield (Senator Mitch Fifield), Facebook post, 9 May 2018,
accessed 9 May 2018. The Senator made this announcement in reaction to a number
of organisations and commentators who said that the Government was not renewing
the special funding or had made a decision to cease it. See, for example, N
Leys, ABC
indexation freeze amounts to cuts, media release, 8 May 2018.
[11].
D Davidson, ‘Federal budget 2018: Guthrie vows to oppose ABC indexation
freeze’, The Australian, 9 May 2018.
[12].
N Leys, ABC
indexation freeze amounts to cuts, media release, 8 May 2018.
[13].
Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Cuts
to ABC ‘dangerous and irresponsible’, media release, 9 May 2018.
[14].
Ibid.
[15].
Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2018–19,
p. 79.
[16].
Ibid.
[17].
R Jolly, Communications
Legislation Amendment (SBS Advertising Flexibility) Bill 2017, Bills
Digest, 98, 2016–17, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2017.
[18].
The first Bill to give SBS more flexibility in its scheduling of
advertising and sponsorship announcements was introduced by the Coalition
Government in 2015. Labor Senators, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and Independent
Senator Nick Xenophon issued a dissenting report at the conclusion of the
Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee inquiry into the
Bill, which was subsequently rejected by the Senate on 24 June 2015. For more
information see ibid., pp. 6–7.
[19].
Australian Government, Budget measures: budget paper no. 2: 2018–19,
p. 79.
All online articles accessed May 2018
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